


Bitten

by hanasupersong



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, Nobody Dies, Zombie AU, but theres plenty angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-07 00:55:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3154766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanasupersong/pseuds/hanasupersong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lan Fan gets bit, it's Ling's fault.</p><p>zombie au, small bits of gore and maybe more chapters to come?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bitten

**Author's Note:**

> belheslhesl this is my first story i posted online cause idk i feel confident actually writing these 2 which is really weird, i usually hate my writing. lets hope i dont delete this after 5 minutes of posting! apologies for any spelling errors or sentences that dont make sense, i hope you enjoy! :D

When Lan Fan gets bit, it’s Ling’s fault. No matter how hard she tries to convince him otherwise, there’s no other explanation as to how Lan Fan one of the strongest most experienced trained fighters out of the group got herself bitten. It had to be Ling, and he never let himself forget that, how quickly he had gone from trying to draw a smile from beneath her masked face to practically begging and sobbing like a small child over her for her to stay awake.

It was a scouting expedition, normally no more than 3 people were required for something so simple, but the area they were foraging was immensely large and could have been swarming with undead as it was unknown area. Roy almost always instructed the group to stick solely to the areas they knew best, never over step your bounds into other peoples territories or charge in unannounced leaving yourself wide open for attack, but with medical and armoury supplies running low, they were growing desperate. So, against his own judgement, he sent out a group of 6, twice the numbers, double the power was what had been thought.

It was a normal expedition, that’s all it was.

And Ling just  _had_  to fuck it all up.

Riza was their leader, instructing Winry and the Elric brothers which areas to scout, what to look out for and to only ever take what was needed, Roy felt extremely unease at sending out a group of teenagers into an unknown area, so he sent his most trusted partner to watch over them like the hawk she was. She told Ling and Lan Fan to stick close together and do whatever needed, they worked better as a pair, almost as well as Roy and Riza, she felt oddly protective of them. As though they were a mirror image of Roy and herself before the world effectively burned up and went to shit.

"Why are we even looking in a shady department store? What will we find here other than torn up clothes and old merchandise which we’re not even allowed to keep any more?" Ling whined kicking over a wooden plank which skittered across the floor, leaving a hollow echo in the wide space. Even though there were no obvious signs of danger, the room filled Ling with a sense of unease, bodies were scattered some practically skeletal and ancient and some only just beginning to carry the scent of rotten flesh in their skin. But the mannequins and advertisements were still pinned up around them, smiling faces and posed dolls still there, reminding him of the hollow shell of a world that used to exist.

It was kinda depressing if he thought about it too much. So he pushed the thought out of his mind and kept walking.

Lan Fan turned around to hush him keeping a steady grip on her blade. Always the ever faithful guard whenever she was with Ling, it almost bugged him when she was like that. Sure, he was grateful to have her at his side, but he wanted her as a friend, (maybe more but he would cross that bridge later, maybe the world wasn’t so shitty), not a bodyguard. He jutted out his bottom lip in a childish pout while Lan Fan inspected every nook and crack of the room, even going as far as to check the corpses for any supplies.

Ling preoccupied himself with glancing over the old clothes and checking behind the counters, money and coins were scattered along the floor stained with heavily with red. He kicked them over with his foot. ‘ _Useless_.’ He thought. Bored, he continued lazily inspecting worn out grey piles of clothes scattered over the room until his eyes fell onto something that hadn’t been completely eaten through with moths.

And then Ling had an idea.

"Hey Lan Fan?"

"Yes Ling?" she responded flatly continuing to shift through the piles of what was essentially junk.

"Do you think this is my colour?" he said playfully holding up what he assumed was once a dress, around the skirt was printed with flowers which at one point in time stood out bright and beautiful on the skirt. Now it was just grimy and covered in layers of dirt and dust. It didn’t stop Ling from trying it on over his clothes though.

"Yes. It looks perfect on you." Lan Fan deadpanned uninterested, packing the items she managed to find somewhat useful into her bag.

"You’re not even looking!" Ling whined crossing his arms over his chest and stomping his foot feigning annoyance. Lan Fan sighed, lugging her bag over her shoulder and turned to look back at Ling, her mask firmly in place. To anyone else Lan Fan would have been unreadable whenever she wore that thing, but Ling knew her well enough that the mask may as well have been useless. He could tell with just one glance when she smiled at him, from the way her brown eyes would crinkle, the way her lips would have just the slightest hint of a curve, the way she even spoke light and airy when she knew she was allowed to speak in confidence. All these things just seemed like second nature to Ling, catalogued and filed back in his head, ready at any moment he needed it. It felt great to make her smile. It did funny things to Ling’s stomach like that one time when he ate too many beans on a dare and really felt sick and dizzy but strangely proud. Lan Fan always made him feel like that, even with just a smile.

"It really flaunts your figure." Lan Fan hummed her shoulders dropping slightly. Ling smiled brightly at her stature physically changing at his dumb joke, his cheeks felt warm at the sight and he continued with his dumb joke.

"Doesn’t it just?" Ling laughed spinning in a circle letting the dress float around him. "Think Roy would kill me if I walked back wearing this?"

"He would probably be wicked jealous." Lan Fan said a small chuckle in her voice as Ling continued to spin, his head starting to get dazed.

"I bet it would better on you though." Ling said slowing to a halt, his body swaying gently. Lan Fan shrugged and brought her fingers up to her mask adjusting it ever so slightly, a habit she would get into whenever she was nervous.

"Who has time for dressing up any more?" she said with a shrug.

"I mean seriously, all the stuff we wear back at safety is so dreary. Imagine slicing through zombies while wearing this!" Ling said gesturing to the dress. "Now that would be a sight!"

"I can imagine my skin being exposed, getting bitten and dying." Lan Fan deadpanned.

"Come on, humour me for a second." Ling chuckled pulling the dress back off over his head, he inspected the material once more and folded it neatly putting it down back where he found it. He didn’t know why he treated it like it was precious, it was just a piece of scrap now. "You would look beautiful in it, fighting zombies or not." he added scratching the back of his head. He had hoped that line would have come out a lot more romantic and sweet than it actually did but it seemed to have a somewhat stunned effect on Lan Fan, she couldn’t take her eyes off Ling.

"Ling…" she said her voice cautious.

"Hey, don’t worry about it!" Ling added quickly waving his hands as though it would wipe away his words.

“ _Ling_.” she repeated her voice more urgent and eyes growing wide through the gaps of her mask.

"Look I get it, it was a weird thing to say, you don’t have to-"

” _ **LING**_!”

Then he heard it.

It wasn’t loud, but it was so close to him that it made his ears ring, he could feel the damp heat of the corpses breath on his ear as it groaned wordless speech to him. It was low and deep, harsh and throaty just in the shadows making his skin break out into goosebumps. Wet rotting fingers clung to his shoulders and he froze, the air escaping his lungs like he had been struck. He couldn’t move, his legs were rigid, his fingers laid limp at his side and the blade strapped to his back was forgotten. He was going to die.

At least that’s what he thought until Lan Fan sprung into action.

Her knife flew straight from her fingers, lodging itself deep into the flesh of the undead’s throat. It stumbled away from Ling briefly and Lan Fan used this opportunity to yank Ling out of reach of the dead man. Springing onto its body, she pushed another blade into his forehead just for good measure. She stood and turned to face Ling her eyes wide and her breathing ragged. Ling noticed her fingers were trembling and dripping with the brown blood of the infected.

"Are you alright?" she asked her voice tight in her throat. The air felt thick and was almost impossible to breathe in, Ling thought he was going to choke to death if he didn’t catch a grip on himself soon.

"Yeah," he breathed out. "Y-yeah I just…I c-can’t breathe." he coughed, his lungs stinging with the strain of trying to inhale. "T-that was a close call…"

"Way too close,” Lan Fan said shaking her head at the thought of what would have have happened if she was not there. “we should get back to the others before any more show up." She turned away from him her gaze fixed onto the entrance of which they had come, her hands hadn’t stopped shaking. "You have to be more careful next time." she said her voice cold and harsh, Ling hated it when she spoke like that to him. It made him feel like a child, and it painfully reminded him of Fu too. He bit his tongue on these thoughts and dropped his gaze to the wooden floor, decaying from age and stained heavily with pools of brown and red.

"I know," Ling said his voice quiet. "I just thought…we were having fun, and that we could just relax for a moment."

"We don’t have that luxury,” She said softly turning to face Ling, her brown eyes filled with grief. “Not any more at least."

"Yeah…I know…" He said rubbing the back of his neck. A drowning silence filled the room suffocating Ling with a heavy thought, they would never be able to have that luxury. In this new world they lived in survival came first and everything else second, that’s the thought that had been drilled into their brains ever since they was young and it made perfect sense. It was a luxury just to remain alive. Of course, it was just the nature of how everything worked, infected are killed and the living survive. Sentiment and fun were only distractions that put you and others in at risk, dangerous distractions that could not hide the ghastly broken world they lived in.

God, why did everything have to suck?

He sighed heavily running a hand through his hair smiling a smile back at Lan Fan that did not quiet reach his eyes. “Let’s head out.”

"Ling—" Lan Fan started, stepping towards Ling as the floorboards groaned under her weight, and so did the corpse limping behind her.

Several things then happened at once, the monster launched it self at Lan Fan and the flooring gave way dropping her and the undead beneath the wooden floors, almost dropping them into the floor below them. Her gloved hands grasped onto the edge of the new hole in the ground, leaving her dangling from a drop which would easily leave her as nothing more than a ugly stain on the concrete.

"LAN FAN!" Ling jumped quick into action, all previous thoughts forgotten as he gripped onto Lan Fan’s arms and tried with his strength to pull her back up. Heavy quick breaths came from her as she stared up at Ling, eyes wide with shock.

“I-I thought I killed it.” she gasped trying to pull herself up.

“I guess it was tougher than we thought.” Ling laughed, his voice sounded hysteric and his heart was pumping with adrenaline, his nails dug crescent shaped marks into Lan Fan’s skin as he tried to smile down at her. “H-hey, it’s okay though,” he grinned trying to reassure her. “I caught you. It’s okay. We’re okay.” he babbled moving to pull her up. She looked up at him, brown eyes painted with worry but he tried not to focus on that, and instead moved to pull her up.

A low growl erupted from behind Lan Fan and both she and Ling froze. Then something clinging onto Lan Fan’s hips caught Ling’s attention. The monster was growling, it’s white eyes enraged and his nails digging deep into her skin trying to cling onto her.

"S-shit." Ling gasped eyes growing wide at the corpse who glared up at Ling, knife still stuck deep into its forehead. ‘ _Not deep enough_.’ he thought miserably.

"Fuck!" she swore shaking wildly trying to push the undead off her, her efforts were however in vain as the monster barely budged an inch, only moving to clamour up her body.  All her efforts to stall it seemed only to enrage it further. Her fingers trembled straining at the weight of holding up 2 people and a bag full of equipment, even with Ling’s help she couldn’t pull herself up.

Ling briefly considered grabbing his own emergency gun and shooting the disgusting thing off Lan Fan, but he couldn’t let go of Lan Fan at this point. And the guns always carried a risk of attraction from other zombies, and Ling wasn’t going to wait around for this things friends. This also cancelled out the thought of crying for help. He prayed in the back of his mind that someone in the group had wondered what was taking Ling and Lan Fan so long and would arrive with help soon. But that was just wishful thinking, and wishful thinking wasn’t doing shit to try and slow the zombie climbing up Lan Fan like she was a damn jungle gym.

The disgusting corpse was almost face to face with Lan Fan when it decided it had enough of her struggling, it’s bony arms reached up to her shoulders, pulling up until it found a good grip onto her left arm. Blunt brown stained teeth tore through the clothes with ease. It spat out the cloth in distaste, its jaw opened wide once more, its rancid breath ghosting over her skin. She shuddered in disgust at the feeling trying to move away from the zombie, but with no room to move her efforts went wasted. ‘ _No_.’ Ling thought his hands trembling against Lan Fan’s, his knuckles were now turning white and his shoulders shook as he watched the miserable scene before him. Why was he so useless?

“Don’t you dare!” he barked at the zombie (as if he could understand) his voice shaking. The monster glanced up at Ling, and stared. Its milky eyes swirling with infection, bore into Ling’s  own and his brown teeth twisted into what he thought was supposed to resemble a smile. Ling felt a shiver run though his entire being and found himself unable to tear his gaze from the undead. It ran a grey tongue over its torn lips and bit down hard into Lan Fan’s skin, eyes never leaving Ling’s. Blood burst and dribbled down his chin from the wound, as it tore through flesh and skin, chewing through the muscles of her arm. Lan Fan howled in pain and Ling finally snapped out of his daze  smacking the corpse hard with the heel of his boot, its jaw went slack and its head lolled backwards, momentarily dazed.

“GET OFF HER!” Ling screeched smashing his foot into its face again. Its bite dropped from Lan Fan’s arm and Ling had even managed to knock a few teeth from its mouth, he swelled with pride until the corpse glared up at him, a dark anger burning inside its dead eyes. A hoarse cry ripped it self from the zombies throat and it snapped its mouth down into Lan Fans arm again, this time not desperate to eat or chew but simply cut and tear to try and inflict as much pain as it could onto the young girl. Lan Fan cried out her grip dropping and slipping until Ling was holding her just by the fingertips. Her face was squinted tight in pain and from under the mask Ling could see small drops of tears squeeze from the corners of her eyes. His knuckles were white from gripping onto her so tightly, yet her fingers were loose in his hands, slipping inch by inch further and further out of his grasp.

‘ _No_.’ Ling thought panic sinking in. ‘ _This can’t be how it ends_.’ Her grasp fell from Ling’s hands, dropping her through the hole.

"NO!" Ling screamed.

All his wishful thinking be damned, when 3 pairs of hands caught Lan Fan once more and pulled her up.

"Hold on!" Winry said through gritted teeth, Edward and Alphonse gripped tightly onto her limp arms, holding her up while Riza took aim. Riza squinted down the sight, staring down at the monsters forehead, careful not to hit Lan Fan by accident, she pulled her trigger without a second of hesitation and watched as it fell smacking against the floor with a wet sound. If it wasn’t dead before, it sure as hell was now. Ed and Al hoisted Lan Fan up and steadying her onto solid ground, her knees buckled instantly and she fell forwards moments away from banging into the hard floor.

"Whoa!" Alphonse put his hands under her arms and laid her gingerly to the floor. Ling was beside her in a heartbeat, kneeling next to her removing the mask fitted on her face, to try and let her breathe easier. Her face was a sickly pale and beads of sweat trickled down her forehead, sticking stray black strands of her hair to her face. Ling brushed them from her face, fingers stuttering and stammering over her cheeks. Her skin felt feverish and Ling tried to stop shaking as he pressed his hand against her face.

"H-hey Lan Fan," Ling said swallowing the forming lump in his throat that shook his words, her propped her head up to his chest, cupping her face in his hands, still gently brushing against her burning skin. An oddly intimate action would have normally made her pull away from Ling, she just limply laid against him, her brown eyes glazed over and far away. "Talk to me, please." he begged.

"M…" she mumbled her voice trailing away. Her face scrunched up in pain as she spoke, her chest rising and falling unsteadily. "M-…My arm…" she twitched her hand that had been wounded, in an attempt to try and signal that’s where the pain was.

"Oh god…" Winry breathed kneeling beside her and cradling her arm gently, easing  it up her eyes to inspect the messy gash, it was high up on the arm almost by the shoulder. A pink bone stood out against the mangled flesh and she bit her lip in thought turning back to the group, her voice low. "It’s bad. The infected practically tore out all the muscles in her upper arm, she’ll bleed to death if we don’t stop it or slow it." Alphonse nodded in understanding, kneeling down besides Winry first aid kit at the ready, trying to apply pressure on the wound. Lan Fan hissed in pain and Al muttered a quiet apology.

"What the hell happened?!" Edward snapped to Ling, his voice lacked its usual bark and bite and instead sounded almost…sad.

"It’s my fault." Ling said his hands dropping down to Lan Fan’s unwounded hand holding it tightly, almost scared it would slip out of his grip once again. "I distracted her, I let this happen."

“Hey, come on Ling it could have happened to any of us.” Alphonse said. “You shouldn’t blame yourself…it’s okay.” he added softly.

"How the fuck can you say that?!" Ling snapped, blinking away hot tears from his vision. "None of this is okay! She was fine until I was a idiot like I always am and screwed everything up! How could you possibly-!" he choked on his own words sobs spilling from his throat, he chewed his lip to try and halter it but it still flooded out of him in meek whimpers. He shouldn’t have snapped at Alphonse, he was just trying to be reassuring, but his anger wasn’t truly at him or even the horrible rotten pile of mess that did this to Lan Fan. It’s his fault. It’s most certainly not okay. Because of him and his dumb jokes, Lan Fan was going to die miserably, slowly and painfully.

A firm grip latched onto Ling’s shoulder, bringing his eyes up to Riza’s. He expected a scolding, for her to confirm his suspicions,  to say he should have done better, they should have never brought him. But she said none of this, all she did was squeeze his shoulder gently a soft look in her eyes. It didn’t feel like she had to necessarily say anything after that, that one simple action spoke hundreds of words that didn’t need to be said, it was enough to make Ling understand.

“These things happen Ling.” she said her voice gentle as she pulled away her hand. “Just let Al and Winry do what they can for now.”

“N…” Lan Fan muttered, tongue heavy in her mouth, as though the mere letters were weighing them down. Her hand held tightly in Ling’s grasp, pressed back against him lightly, asking for some distance. “N…no.” she gasped out.

“No?” Edward asked with a tilt of his head. She looked at the ground away from everyone’s gaze but no words came, she shivered hard against Ling’s chest her head shaking back and forth, teeth gritted hard and her jaw tense. 

“Don’t strain yourself speaking Lan Fan.” Winry hushed applying a gauze over her wound.

“No…!” Lan Fan groaned, twisting her arm away from Winry and Alphonse’s grip. “No!” she repeated her voice trembling.

“Lan Fan, if you don’t let them treat you you’ll die…” Ling said.

“Already…dead.” she sighed, eyes blinking in and out of a sleepy daze. “Bitten… _infected_.” she said shaking her head. “Waste…of your t-time. Must l-leave…”

“Bullshit.” Edward growled.

“Ed…!” Alphonse sighed.

“We’re not leaving Lan Fan here. End of story.”

“We can’t take her back with us, they’ll never let us take in someone who’s been bitten.” Winry said quietly. Edward stared.

“Are you 2 lunatics really saying we should just leave her here?!” Edward barked.

“Of course not! How can you even say something like that Ed?!” Winry snapped back.

“I should be asking you the same thing!”

“All we’re saying brother,” Alphonse said. “is that our options are limited. We really… we can’t just bring her back with us now.” Silence settled between the group, only small whimpers and grunts of pain could be heard from where Lan Fan laid against Ling and it was an eerie sound to acknowledge, as it would mean identified only best as the sound of your friend dying slowly and painfully. Ling finally spoke after long while of silence.

“But we’re not leaving her here.” he pressed his forehead gently to the top of Lan Fan’s, making her seize but quickly relax into the embrace. “I refuse to.”

“Ling…be realistic, what other options do we have?” Winry said.

“Two.”

All eyes whipped up from where Riza stood, she remained silent throughout the whole ordeal, her expression and eyes unreadable.

“Two…of what?” Alphonse asked confused.

"Lan Fan," Riza said softly, ignoring Alphonse and lowering herself down to where Lan Fan laid. "Can you hear me?" she asked. Lan Fan stared at her through half lidded eyes and made a small noise of understanding. "I’m going to give you an option here." Ling looked up to Riza again, her expression was still stone cold. "In a situation like this, we have 2 possible options.” She said holding up 2 fingers. “You can lie here and pass away slowly and painlessly and one of us will ensure that you do not…come back." Ling gaped at her, but before he could even attempt to ask why she would suggest such a cruel thing, Edward spoke for him.

"Hawkeye, what the hell are you-?!" Edward started, but she simply raised her hand to him silencing him instantly and waited for a response from Lan Fan.

"There is no shame if you decide that’s what you want. It’s your life and your decision, don’t let any of us try and sway you. Do you want this option?" she asked.

Lan Fan groaned in response and shook her head, fingers digging into Ling’s hand at the thought of giving up so easily and dying, she pushed her head further into Ling’s chest trying to get closer to the warmth that he had offered. He pressed his lips against her forehead, hand squeezing back reassuringly, she wanted to look up at him, but in her current state, she couldn’t even bring herself to speak. Her wound stung and a cold numbness spread to her fingers, she could no longer move her fingertips even by an inch.

"What’s the second option?" Ling asked quietly.

"Our second option is to remove the area that was bitten. This means that we will have to take off your entire left arm unfortunately, due to how high up the wound is. It will hurt. You might die from the pain alone if blood loss doesn’t claim you first. It is also not entirely successful, but it gives you a chance to live. It worked for Havoc, it might work on you also." she explained placing a hand softly on her shoulder. Lan Fan winced at the contact and meekly lifted up her gaze towards Riza’s eyes. "Do you want us to do this?"

Lan Fan inhaled sharply, her brown eyes were hard and steely as she stared up at Riza. They almost mirrored each other, both bring bright full of fire and vigour, like the Lan Fan Ling had always known.

"Do it."


End file.
